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Gc 976.402 G13k 1762884
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02322 0194
" Gather Up the Fragments that Remain Lest They Be Lost." -- John VI. 12.
DIAMOND JUBILEE 1847 -- 1922 OF THE DIOCESE OF GALVESTON AND
ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL
NEC TIMEO NEC SPERNO
James Martin
COMPILED BY THE PRIESTS OF THE SEMINARY
"Gather Up The Fragments ,
1762884
HISTORY
OF THE
iocese of albeston AND
St. Mary's Cathedral
DIAMOND JUBILEE 1847 - 1922
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Venerable Antonio Margil de Jesus Copied from a painting in the Secretariate of the City of Mexico
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
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[KIRWIN, JAMES MARTIN] 1572- Diamond jubilee, 1547-1822, of the diocese of Galveston and St. Mary's cathedral. Comp. by the priests of the seminary. [Galveston, Tex., Knapp bros., printers, 1922] [III],13], [1]p. front., 3 pl., 6 ports. 24cm.
Preface signed: J.M. Kirwin. "References": p.131.
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NIHIL OBSTAT. M. J. CROWE, Censor Deputatus.
IMPRIMATUR CHRISTOPHERUS EDUARDUS, Episcopus Galvestonensis.
PREFACE
We present only some of "the fragments that remain" of the early history of the Diocese of Galveston. To compile them was a labor of love. The reading of them will make us realize that "our lines are cast in pleasant places" and in prayer and praise and contrast we shall "remember the days of old."
We are indebted to Rev. C. L. Souvay, C. M., D. D., of Kenrick Seminary, Webster Grove, Mo., for the many letters of Bishops Timon and Odin. With the care that bespeaks the scholar, he copied them from scattered archives, and the imper- fections of translation we assume to ourselves.
We owe much to Monsignor W. W. Hume, D. D., New Orleans, whose monograph on Ven. Antonio de Margil and other contributions lend particular interest. To the Rt. Rev. C. E. Byrne, D. D., to Rev. J. A. Rapp, to Mr. James Kirwin Rey- baud, who typed the, at times, illegible story, and to all others who contributed to the making, we tender our gratitude.
We had hoped to present a real history of the Diocese and we now have at hand-we regret the late arrival-in the separ- ate narratives of parishes, missions, convents, hospitals and schools, material from which the story may be compiled. We appreciate the time and interest given by the clergy and Sisters to their task and assure them that the material will be carefully guarded until such time as leisure and inclination may put it into .permanent form.
J. M. KIRWIN.
LaPorte,
Feast of St. Thomas, Aquinas, 1922.
BRIEF OUTLINE OF GALVESTON DIOCESE
1840-1842-The Republic of Texas, a prefecture apostolic, with the Very Rev. John Timon, C. M., prefect apostolic; the Very Rev. John Mary Odin, vice-prefect.
1842-1847-The Republic of Texas raised from a prefecture apostolic to a vicariate apostolic, with the Rt. Rev. J. M. Odin, D. D., Bishop of Claudiopolis, vicar apostolic.
1847-Erection of the Diocese of Galveston, with the Rt. Rev. J. M. Odin, D. D., its first bishop.
1861-The Rt. Rev. J. M. Odin, D. D., made Archbishop of New Orleans.
1862-Consecration of the Rt. Rev. C. M. Dubuis, D. D., as Bishop of Galveston.
1874-First division of the Diocese of Galveston. Up to Sept. 3, 1874, the Diocese of Galveston comprised the entire State of Texas. In the division the Diocese of Galveston retained the portion of the State lying east of the Colorado River; while the Diocese of San Antonio was created out of the territory lying between the Colorado and Nueces rivers, and the vicariate apostolic of Brownsville out of the territory lying between the Nueces and the Rio Grande.
1878-The Rt. Rev. P. Dufal, D. D., Bishop of Delcon and Vicar- Apostolic of Eastern Bengal, transferred to Galveston as coadjutor of the Rt. Rev. C. M. Dubuis, cum jure suc- cessionis ; resigned, 1880.
1882-April 30, Consecration of the Rt. Rev. Nicholas Aloysius Gallagher, D. D., as Titular Bishop of Canopus and Bis- hop Administrator of the Diocese of Galveston.
1890-Second division of the Diocese of Galveston. At the re- quest of Bishop Gallagher, the Diocese of Dallas was, in 1890, created out of the northern and northwestern por- tion of Galveston Diocese ; the counties of Lampasas, Cor- yell, McLennan, Limestone, Freestone, Anderson, Chero- kee, Nacogdoches, and Shelby, now forming the northern boundary of the Diocese of Galveston.
1892-The Rt. Rev. N. A. Gallagher, D. D., succeeded to the title of Bishop of Galveston; the titular bishop, the Rt. Rev. C. M. Dubuis, being promoted to an archbishopric in partibus infidelium.
1907-April 30, Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Consecration of the Rt. Rev. N. A. Gallagher, Bishop of Galveston.
1918-Jan. 21. Death of Bishop N. A. Gallagher, D. D.
1918-Nov. 10. Consecration of Rt. Rev. Christopher Edward Byrne, D. D., fourth Bishop of Galveston.
1922-March 14. Solemn celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of the Diocese and Cathedral.
INDEX
PAGE
I. The Dawn 1-6
II. Texas in the Eighteenth Century. The Missions Suppressed 7-15
III. The Venerable Antonio Margil de Jesus
16-22
IV. San Jacinto's Glorious Field.
23-32
V. The Awakening by the Lazarists
33-42
VI. Bishop Odin's Diary
43-52
VII.
Bishop Odin Comes
53-85
VIII. Early Pioneers and Yellow Fever Priests.
36-89
IX. Early Cathedral Records
90-100
X. The Diocese of Galveston
101-105
XI. Bishop John Timon
106-10%
XII.
Bishop Claude Marie Dubuis
108-111
XIII. Bishop Nicholas Aloysius Gallagher
112-118
XIV. Bishop Christopher Edward Byrne.
119-121
XV. Historical Tableaux presented during
Diamond Jubilee
122-130
CHAPTER I.
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THE DAWN.
The diocese of Galveston when established embraced the whole State of Texas, and the rule of Bishop Odin, as Vicar-Apostolic and Bishop of Claudiopolis, covered the Republic of Texas.
There is no portion of American history of more vital inter- est, more filled with tales of discovery and romance, more replete with heroic sacrifice of priest and soldier. The flags of Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Star-Spangled Ban- ner and the Stars and Bars have been saluted at retreat as the flag to which Texas gave allegiance. It was the seat of more communistic and utopian experiments, which have been the de- light of the visionary in every age of the world's progress, than all the other states of the union combined. This brochure can but indicate the sources that "the fragments may not be lost" and here and there give a flash of the extraordinary incidents in the march of the cowl and the carbine along the ways of colonization and civilization in Texas.
Indirectly Spain began to accumulate information con- cerning Texas in 1519, when Alvarez de Pineda sailed the Gulf from Florida to Tampico. Ten years later, 1528, sev- eral survivors of the Narvaez Expedition were cast on the shore of Texas, and after six years of wandering along the coast from Galveston to Corpus Christi, Cabeza de Vaca and four others escaped from the Indians who had enslaved them and made their way to Mexico. De Vaca wrote an account of their experiences, which gives us our earliest sources for conditions of the Texas interior. (Espejo in "Spanish Exploration in the Southwest," 1542-1706). "They told us and gave us to under- stand through interpreters that three Christians and a negro had passed through there and by the indications they gave they appear to have been Alonso Nunez, Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes Castillo Maldonado and a negro, who had all escaped from the fleet with which Panfilo Narvaez entered Florida." (Page 173.)
In 1541, only forty-nine years after Columbus discovered America, members of the DeSoto Expedition, after the death of their leader, passed through East Texas on their way to Mexico, and the same year Coronado's Expedition, with which were the Franciscan Padre Juan de Padilla, proto-martyr of the United States, and Padre Juan de la Cruz, searching for Quivira, tra-
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HISTORY OF THE
versed a considerable portion of West Texas. The interior of Texas continued to be penetrated by occasional parties of Spanish explorers for the next one hundred and fifty years. The record of the first travel into Texas toward the East was made about 1629 by Father Salas, a Franciscan. And later, in 1650, an expedition led by Captain Hernando Martin entered Texas from New Mexico and went as far as the Nueces River, probably in Uvalde County. Coronado and Anate in their journeys, which led up as high as Kansas, had previously passed through portions of north-west Texas. We know for certain that in 1675 Fernando del Bosque, accompanied by Father Lanos, a Franciscan, and a company of soldiers, crossed the Rio Grande somewhere west of the Pecos River, and made their way over as far as the neighbor- hood of the present site of Eagle Pass. Holy Mass was said in several places and a few Indians were baptized. Many large crosses were erected to mark the places passed, but nothing like permanent foundations, or permanent settlements were attempted. Missionaries were constantly urging the occupation of the Tejas country in vain, and then news reached the government that a French expedition was headed for the southwest country. In 1673 Louis Joliet and Father Marquette explored the Mississippi from Wisconsin to Arkansas. Ten years later LaSalle followed the Mississippi to its mouth and returned to France to beg permission from Louis XIV to settle a colony there. The king approved and LaSalle was generously fitted out with colonists and supplies. In the West Indies one small vessel was captured by Spaniards. The remainder of the little fleet lost its bearings and on February 20th, 1685, entered Matagorda Bay and made a landing. A fort was built some miles inland on the Lavaca River and a search for the Mississippi begun. The Indians, malaria and their own ex- cesses soon brought the party to a desperate state. Joutel's Jour- nal tells the story of life at old Fort St. Louis, and also of the murder of LaSalle near the present site of Navasota, as it was told to him by Father Anastasius soon afterwards.
Father Lopez, with Captain Mendoza and party, in 1684 crossed the Rio Grande at or near El Paso and went northeast to the Pecos River and then east to where the Concho enters the Colorado south of Ballinger. On this trip mass was very frequently said, in fact the "Chronicles" in one place tell us, "Mass has been celebrated every day, and twice on holidays." The present San Angelo was one of the places hallowed on that expedition by the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice. From the 16th of March to the Ist of May, 1684, the members of this expedition rested near the banks of the Colorado, Runnels County. There, perhaps near Ballinger, the Holy Mass was celebrated every day, and the entire services of Holy Week were carried out in a temporary chapel erected there. No settlement was left in the place. Before the
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DIOCESE OF GALVESTON
time of the Father Lopez-Mendoza trip, the king of Spain had been contemplating a colony near the mouth of the Mississippi River. This project was hastened by the news that LaSalle had landed with a company of his French countrymen, and intended to colonize the lower Mississippi and what was called the shores of the Espiritu Santo Bay, in the name of France. Father Massa- net and Captain DeLeon, with a goodly company of soldiers, were sent out to thwart the plan of LaSalle, who had missed the mouth of the Mississippi and landed somewhere in the Matagorda Bay, west of the Colorado River. Somewhere between Victoria and Edna he made a temporary camp, but trouble with the Indians made him move on, and he set out northeast, looking perhaps for the Mississippi River, which he knew and had traversed. Captain Alonso de Leon and Father Damian Massanet, in their northwest journey in 1689, crossed the Rio Grande, and following the Gulf Coast discovered the wrecks of LaSalle's ships in the Matagorda Bay and his abandoned camp near Victoria. Before returning, they met a chief of the Tejas Indians near the Guadalupe River. and from him learned the direction taken by LaSalle, and from the chief they also received an invitation to come and Chris- tianize the people of his tribe. Father Massanet and De Leon returned to Mexico and made a report of their journey, and in the following year, 1690, they returned with a larger company of men, and a more complete outfit, to follow in the footsteps of LaSalle, and to grant the request of the Tejas chief. With this expedition there went four other Franciscan priests besides Father Massanet. They made their way back to the neighborhood of Victoria, destroyed the remains of LaSalle's camp, proceeded up the valley of the Guadalupe River and crossed the Colorado some- where between LaGrange and Bastrop. From there, led and directed by friendly Indians, they pushed on at easy stages to the villages of the Tejas. Mass was celebrated at what is now Crock- ett, and the following day brought them in sight of the Tejas settlement near where the San Pedro Creek enters the Neches in Houston County. On Monday, May 22, 1690, they entered the Indian village, bearing before them a banner of the Blessed Mother, the whole company the while singing the Litany of the Blessed Virgin. They were received with great reverence and gladness, and invited to the house of the chief. The following day the erection of a home for the priests, and a chapel, was begun. On the feast of Corpus Christi this chapel was dedicated. A Mass was sung, and the first procession of the Most Blessed Sacrament was held within the present borders of Texas. After the procession the standard of Spain, bearing on one side the picture of the Crucified Christ and on the other that of the Virgin of Guadalupe was raised, a royal salute was fired and the Te Deum was sung. The notes of the great hymn of St. Ambrose
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HISTORY OF THE
rang through the tall pines of the Neches woods and proclaimed the establishment in the Church of St. Francis on the Neches of the same faith of St. Peter's on the Tiber. Father Massanet's four companion priests with three soldiers were put in charge of Texas's first interior settlement, and five days later Father Massa- net and his companions began their return journey to Mexico.
The history of San Francisco de los Tejas, which De Leon and Massanet left in charge of four padres and three soldiers, is shorter in time but hardly less abundant in misfortune than that of Fort St. Louis. The padres founded another small establish- ment nearby and worked zealously, but their experiences included drought and overflow, ruining the harvests, and was followed by famine and pestilence. The Indians refused to live in communities and the soldiers became unmanageable and outrageous in their conduct. Finally the viceroy ordered the abandonment of the Mission and in October, 1693, the padres and soldiers buried what- ever property they could not carry away with them and departed. Only one Spaniard had died there, but they had little more real success than the French at Fort St. Louis.
In 1691 Father Massanet had returned with Captain Domingo Teran. The expedition was organized into divisions, one going by land and the other by sea. The first division consisted of fifty soldiers, nine priests and a number of attendants ; the second was made up of forty seamen. The purpose of this entrada was to strengthen the Mission of San Francisco de los Tejas and establish others. Teran accompanied the division that went by land, as did Padre Massanet. The junction of the land and sea forces did not take place until late in the summer, and the whole force did not start from Mission San Francisco de los Tejas until near the opening of winter. The expedition penetrated apparently to the Red River, but mischievous discussions, great suffering from cold and hunger followed, and they were fortunate to get back to Espiritu Santo and the Gulf and home to Mexico by sea rather than overland. After these expeditions, there was but one people in the country they penetrated, of whom the Spanish in Mexico thought seriously and that was the Tejas Indians.
Tejas was the name not of a single tribe, but a confederacy of nearly thirty, including nine tribes of the Asenais or Cenis. It is but natural that the name of Tejas or Texas should be ex- tended to the whole region. Nuevas Filipinas, which was for some time the official designation, was not upon the popular tongue, and was soon displaced entirely by Texas.
In 1713 Governor Cadillac of Louisiana ordered Louis Saint -- Denis to organize an expedition to the old Spanish missions in Texas, ostensibly for the purpose of buying horses and cattle, but really for exploring the territory and establishing trade with the
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DIOCESE OF GALVESTON
natives. Cadillac had received from Fray Francisco Hidalgo a letter asking his co-operation for the establishment of a mission among the Asenais. Padre Hidalgo had been at San Francisco de los Tejas, and when that Mission was abandoned he went to San Juan Batista on the Rio Grande. He later returned to the scene of his earlier labors in Texas and had remained for several years as a missionary among the Asenais. Appeal after appeal had been made by the Franciscans to re-occupy the country of the Tejas, but in vain. Early in 1711 Padre Hidalgo, finding it im- possible to inspire the authorities in Mexico with the enthusiasm of the Franciscans, wrote to the governor of Louisiana. Cadillac responded promptly, in sharp contrast to the Spanish neglect and Louis Jucherau de Saint-Denis was chosen as leader of the ex- pedition. He had previously led parties into Texas and was ex- perienced in dealing with the Indians. His expedition started from Mobile in the fall of 1713, but was delayed some time at Biloxi, and did not enter Texas until 1714. When he reached the Asenais they readily lent themselves to Saint-Denis's policy. They were anxious to have Padre Hidalgo return and they gave him the necessary guides to conduct him to San Juan Batista, two leagues on the Mexican side from the river and about thirty- five miles from the present site of Eagle Pass.
Captain Diego Ramon, the commander of the presidio, treated Saint-Denis and his companions well but detained them until he could get instructions from the Viceroy. Saint-Denis kept Cadillac informed of the state of affairs and found relief for the suspense and tedium of awaiting the Viceroy's instruction by engaging himself to the granddaughter of Captain Ramon, whom he married before returning to Louisiana. Eventually he was called to the City of Mexico, and when Espinosa and his council saw that they were threatened with French encroachment, the loss of northern trade and the discovery of their valuable mines, they readily yielded to Saint-Denis's suggestion that the governors of the ex- posed provinces be directed to keep out the French and that the Missions in that quarter be re-established. The council planned an expedition to establish four missions among the Tejas Indians. The expedition was organized under the leadership of Captain Domingo Ramon, son of the governor of the presidio of San Juan Batista. Besides Ramon, his son Diego and Saint-Denis, there were only twenty-two soldiers, but twelve friars, three lay brothers and many civilians accompanied the party, and there were a few families and several married men, accompanied by their wives. Saint-Denis was chief convoy and quartermaster of the outfit and had notified Cadillac of the entrada, and had even pro- posed a counter-expedition to Espiritu Santo Bay. The expedition led by Ramon made its final start from the Rio Grande April 27,
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HISTORY OF THE
1716, and followed the route previously traveled by Saint-Denis, and in two months they came to the country of the Tejas, who received them with great friendliness.
Mission San Francisco was re-established, but on a site four leagues further inland. The original designation was changed to San Francisco de los Neches. Five other Missions were founded, whose names were Nuestra Senora de la Guadalupe, La Purissima Concepcion, San Jose, San Miguel de Linares and Nuestra Senora de los Dolores. They were to serve respectively in the order in which they have been named, beginning with San Francisco, the Neches or Nacogdoches, the Asinais, the Noaches. the Adaes and the Aes. Guadalupe was near the present town of Nacogdoches and the others were situated in an irregular group around it at distances ranging from twenty-five to fifty miles, the last two being well towards the east and near the French settlements already established on the Red River.
Saint-Denis went to Louisiana in 1717 and reentered the French service. In the course of time his wife rejoined him. Spain owed him much, for he had unwittingly and unwillingly strengthened its possession of a goodly land.
From 1716, when the Missions in East Texas were re-estab) -. lished by Ramon, until 1762, when France surrendered Western Louisiana to Spain, the Spanish and French stood facing each other at the northeast corner of Texas in close proximity. From the Mission of Adaes ( which was truly the capital of Texas for a brief period before the removal to San Antonio) to the French fort built among the Nacogdoches Indians, was only seven leagues. Whilst the civil history is full of storm and strife, the Church struggle is covered by the monograph of the life of Blessed An- tonio Margil and his Franciscan Companions, and the story of Texas Missionary Enterprises in the eighteenth and early nine- teenth century as compiled by Father Rapp.
CHAPTER II.
TEXAS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. THE MISSIONS SUPPRESSED.
Geographically considered, Texas in the 18th century was a somewhat indefinite and changing entity. The original Texas was the territory of the Hasinai or Asinai (Texas) Indians between the Trinity and Red Rivers. Early in the 18th century the bounda- , ries were extended westward to include the settlements on the San Antonio River and Matagorda Bay. Later in the century the Nueces River was considered its western boundary. Before the middle of the 18th century the eastern boundary was fixed ten- tatively a little west of the Red River. On the coast Spain forti- fied and held the mouth of the Trinity as another point and pushed it as far east as the Sabine River. West of the upper Nueces and San Saba Rivers was considered as belonging to Coahuila and New Mexico. Generally speaking then, Texas in the middle 18th century comprised the eastern half of the present State of Texas and a part of Western Louisiana.
At the opening of the 18th century Texas was the home of the Apache, Comanche, Lipon and many other Indian tribes. These native tribes were of concern to Spain and mainly for two reasons : all were objects of solicitude to the missionaries; they were exposed to the influence of French explorations, which must be counteracted. At the close of the first period of the 18th cen- tury Texas was distinctively a buffer province. The two prin- cipal factors which made it worth while to occupy were its French neighbors and its native inhabitants. By 1731 Spanish claims to most of the region had been vindicated and the outlines of the province drawn. The points of occupation at that time fell into two distinct groups, one lying between the Neches and the Red Rivers-the original Texas; another on the San Antonio and Guadalupe Rivers. On the Rio Grande at San Juan Batista there was a third group which was intimately connected with the de- velopment of the region between the Rio Grande and San Antonio Rivers. In civil and military affairs all this province was subject directly to the Spanish viceroy at Mexico City and in ecclesiastical matters to the Archbishop of Guadalajara.
The first missions, like the presidios or military garrisons, were frontier institutions. They worked hand in hand however. The central figure of every mission was the Indian pueblo or
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HISTORY OF THE
village. If the Indian was to be civilized or christianized he must be kept in a definite spot. To effect this and to afford the mis- sionaries protection as well as to hold the frontier against in- vaders, presidios or garrisons were established nearby, provided with a guard. The missions of Texas were conducted originally by two Franciscan missionary colleges of Queretaro and Zaca- tecas, Mexico. The missions were grouped into presidencies. The Zacatecan missions in eastern Texas and those on the San Antonio River constituted separate presidencies. The Queretaran missions were along the Rio Grande.
The first priests that set foot on Texas soil with actual coloni- zation in view were Fathers Zenobius Neambre, Anastase Douay, Maximus Le Clercq, Father John Cavelier, a brother of La Salle, and Father Chefdeville, who accompanied the French ex- plorer LaSalle on his expedition to colonize the lower part of the Mississippi River. LaSalle and his troupe set out from Rochelle, France, on the 24th of July, 1684. His dream was to colonize the beautiful wilderness watered by the lower Mississippi, but his dream was never realized. Having no exact chart to the pathless and unknown waters of the Gulf of Mexico, he lost his way to the mouth of the Mississippi, and sailing westward he came on January Ist, 1685, in sight of the low-lying shores of Texas and entered Espiritu Santo Bay, now Matagorda Bay. Attended by soldiers and priests and over three hundred souls, he set foot on the new land. He explored the country round about. At the end of a short time he marked out the foundation for a fort be- side a small stream which empties into the Bay. This stream he called Les Vaches (La Vaca), Cow River, from the number of buffaloes which he saw grazing on the banks. The fortress was named St. Louis and a chapel was built nearby, later Bahia Mis- sion. For two years these five priests had offered the Holy Sacrifice in a chapel constructed near the fort and administered the sacraments. There were marriages and baptisms, the sick to console with religious rites and the dead for whom to offer the Mass of Requiem. Spain soon learned that France was laying unlawful hands on her Spanish possessions in the new world and consequently ordered her viceroy in Mexico to set out and expel them, if found.
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